I caught up on some movies
The Fare (Movie, Amazon) - As noted in plenty of other posts, I’m a sucker for a good Groundhog Day loop, and though this film was clearly made on a shoestring budget, they do a shockingly good job with it. There are basically only two characters and one set; but they make it work. The twist is clever and works well.
The Mummy (Movie, HBOMax) - This is adorable, only mildly terrifying depending on what phobias you have, and totally holds up. There’s a reason snippets from it keep appearing on my Tumblr dash, more than 20 years after it came out.
Dynasty Warriors (Movie, Netflix) - Ridiculously compressed, but also ridiculously slow-moving. Mostly a collection of video game cutscenes, both the talky kind and the high-speed action kind. The Shu characters have magic powers even before they get their magic weapons from the mysterious woman at Sword Castle. They resolve absolutely nothing, not even the Lu Bu/Dong Zhou plotlines. The dub can’t be bothered to keep names consistent. It’s terrible, but having enjoyed many generations of the video games and also read the original novel, I had fun with it.
Black Widow (Movie, Disney+) - A pretty standard Marvel movie without any real surprises. Entertaining but ultimately forgettable. The timeline is a bit suspect, though: If the opening is in 1985 and the rest of the movie is 21 years later... was Civil War really in 2006? Because this is clearly right after Civil War, before Scott and Clint got moved to house arrest. (I need to look up the moving pieces between Civil War and Infinity War.) I also have no idea why the Red Guardian seemed to think he had a rivalry with Captain America if he'd been in prison since the 80s and Steve was on ice until right before The Avengers.
The Suicide Squad (Movie, HBOMax) - We accidentally watched the first 15 minutes of the original Suicide Squad movie when we went to watch this, and hoo-boy what a difference. This does indeed have a Guardians of the Galaxy tone (which was a stated goal), but with more cursing and ludicrous gore. And a giant Starro the Conqueror that keeps comic-original coloration, so it’s both cute and also totally gross. The actors are clearly all having So Much Fun, including and especially the cameos (like Taika Waititi as Ratcatcher I and Nathan Fillion as a renamed Arm-Fall-Off Floyd). This is delightful fun that is absolutely not for kids.
Gunpowder Milkshake (Movie, Netflix) - This is some Grade-A B-Movie right here. It knows exactly what it is, and that’s the story of a woman with a terrible boss who doesn’t appreciate her skills, so she rediscovers the people who actually appreciate her and forms a new family with them. With an absurd amount of murder. (The body count just from the main gang that’s after Sam seems to be around 70 dudes.) Also: This movie is beautiful, the design approach made me think of Frank Miller’s Sin City, and they got really clever and creative with the action sequences.
The Mummy (Movie, HBOMax) - This is adorable, only mildly terrifying depending on what phobias you have, and totally holds up. There’s a reason snippets from it keep appearing on my Tumblr dash, more than 20 years after it came out.
Dynasty Warriors (Movie, Netflix) - Ridiculously compressed, but also ridiculously slow-moving. Mostly a collection of video game cutscenes, both the talky kind and the high-speed action kind. The Shu characters have magic powers even before they get their magic weapons from the mysterious woman at Sword Castle. They resolve absolutely nothing, not even the Lu Bu/Dong Zhou plotlines. The dub can’t be bothered to keep names consistent. It’s terrible, but having enjoyed many generations of the video games and also read the original novel, I had fun with it.
Black Widow (Movie, Disney+) - A pretty standard Marvel movie without any real surprises. Entertaining but ultimately forgettable. The timeline is a bit suspect, though: If the opening is in 1985 and the rest of the movie is 21 years later... was Civil War really in 2006? Because this is clearly right after Civil War, before Scott and Clint got moved to house arrest. (I need to look up the moving pieces between Civil War and Infinity War.) I also have no idea why the Red Guardian seemed to think he had a rivalry with Captain America if he'd been in prison since the 80s and Steve was on ice until right before The Avengers.
The Suicide Squad (Movie, HBOMax) - We accidentally watched the first 15 minutes of the original Suicide Squad movie when we went to watch this, and hoo-boy what a difference. This does indeed have a Guardians of the Galaxy tone (which was a stated goal), but with more cursing and ludicrous gore. And a giant Starro the Conqueror that keeps comic-original coloration, so it’s both cute and also totally gross. The actors are clearly all having So Much Fun, including and especially the cameos (like Taika Waititi as Ratcatcher I and Nathan Fillion as a renamed Arm-Fall-Off Floyd). This is delightful fun that is absolutely not for kids.
Gunpowder Milkshake (Movie, Netflix) - This is some Grade-A B-Movie right here. It knows exactly what it is, and that’s the story of a woman with a terrible boss who doesn’t appreciate her skills, so she rediscovers the people who actually appreciate her and forms a new family with them. With an absurd amount of murder. (The body count just from the main gang that’s after Sam seems to be around 70 dudes.) Also: This movie is beautiful, the design approach made me think of Frank Miller’s Sin City, and they got really clever and creative with the action sequences.